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THE 



ORIGINAL SOURCES 



OF 



HISTORICAL 



KNOWLEDGE. 



A FLEA FOR THEIR PRESERVATION. 



BY REV. SILAshKETCHUM, 

President of the New Hampshire Antiquarian Society 

Member of the Historical Societies of 

New Hampshire and New York. 




WINDSOR (Ct.) : 

( 125 copies for private distribution.) 
Crowell Ketchum, Printer. 
1879. 






33V 
K43 



//*L 



/&>- 



With smoking axle hot with speed, with steeds of fire and steam, 
Wide-waked Today leaves Yesterday behind him like a dream. 

Still 'from the hurrying train of Life, fly backward far and fast 
The milestones of the Fathers, the landmarks of the Past. 

John G. Whittier. 



ORIGINAL SOURCES 



OF 



HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE. 



[ Note. — Some of the statements and illustrations, and most of 
the recommendations, contained in this essay, were used in an Ad- 
dress by the writer before the New Hampshire Historical Society, 
at its Annual Meeting in Concord, 13 June, 1877.] 



Knowing so well as I do the destruction that has 
already overtaken the historical records of the 
fathers, and the calamities which have fallen on the 
lares and penates of our New England homes, I de- 
sire to make a plea for their preservation. 

I shall name a few of those original sources of his- 
torical knowledge which are generally the least 
prized, and so most likely to be slighted and de- 
stroyed. I shall also attempt to point out a practica- 
ble method for their aggregation at a convenient 
place ; to indicate in outline a system for their ar- 
rangement and classification ; and a method whereby 
they can be made most easily accessible, and most 



6 ORIGINAL SOURCES OF HISTORY. 

readily available to the enquirer after facts, and for 
all purposes of history or law. 

John Farmer has been styled "the Father of New 
England Genealogy." He was in a conspicuous 
sense the founder of the New Hampshire Historical 
Society, and edited the first five volumes of its col- 
lections. He laid the foundations for Sava 
Genealogical Dictionary. He set the example of 
writing town histories. He gave currency to the 
project of a periodical literature devoted exclusively 
to American history. The New England Historic, 
Genealogical Society was established by his pupils. * 

Under the impulse of forces which he more than 
any other man set in motion ; by the energy of pro- 
clivities to which he by counsel and example gave 
wise direction ; the boundaries of legitimate history 
have been much enlarged, and the subjects of histori- 
cal enquiry considerably multiplied in these latter 
days. 

States and empires, crowns and dynasties, r 
lutions and invasions are no longer considered the 

* In a letter from Hon. John Went worth, LL. D., of Chicago, 
he assures me his enthusiasm for genealogical pursuits was 
aroused l>y the letters of JOHN FARMER to his father, making encjuir- 
nceming the early meml ers of the Wentworth family, so long 
distinguished in New Hampshire affairs. How many men took 
the fever from the same contact it would be impossible to 
mine. But when we recall to mind the men who. being younger 
than he, were brought into intimate relations with this great Ami 
quary — Bouton, Drake, Towne, the sons of Jacob Bailey M 
Jr., the Spaldings, the Bells, and man)- others-— an i then note the 
character of their literary labors and favorite pursu 
fail to see how this quiet, unobtrusive, patient . ul man re 

peated himself, without intention, in the generation which su 

ed him. 

* I find tli.it M Wi s i win; I it fcko st.itcs the s.iiiif tlni. ;, in she Puf.uc t> the Wi>r 
I. v. 1873 



ORIGINAL SOURCES OF HISTORY. 7 

only proper subjects of record, or as presenting- the 
only themes worthy of the true historian's ambition. 
For histories of churches, parishes, societies, associa- 
tions, institutions, towns, cities, and even peculiar 
local customs, social and religious movements, secu- 
lar enterprises and industries, there is already a large 
demand. And the delight taken in their study and 
preparation may be expected to increase in due pro- 
portion to the. increase of intelligence and culture. 
These works may not reach to that high importance 
ascribed to the more pretentious labors of the recog- 
nized historian. Nevertheless, the accuracy, extent, 
and variety of information, contained in the larger, 
are often derived from these humbler and .inferior 
treasuries of facts.* In the t days of Bradford, 
Morton," Hubbard and Winthrop, American history 
could hardly be more than a series of memoranda, 
detailing local events. It is only within this century 
that it became very generally recognized that we had 
any history to write. 

Nor is biography — the history of a life — any long: 
er;, confined, to the. "great ones." Many men are 
found to be locally great — in influence and power. 
No man can be the proper historian of a town or 
state, that do.es .-not clearly discern the influence, on 

* Family tradition and genealogical history is [are] the very re- 
verse of amber which, itself a valuable substance, usually includes' 
flies, straws, and other trifles ; whereas these studies, being them- 
selves insignificant and trifling, do nevertheless serve to perpetuate 
a great deal of what is rare and valuable in ancient manners, a*nd 
to record many curious and minute facts which could- have -been 
preserved and conveyed through no other medium. — Sir W. Scott, 
11 Waver ly" ch. iv. 



S ORIGINAL SOURCES OF HISTORY. 

their character and destiny, of the opinions and ex- 
ample of their leading citizens. * 

And in the transformation of ideas which has 
swept over the nation and the nations in this hundred 
years, the importance of the local community, like 
that of the single person, has been much enhanced. 
The love of family, which we inherit from our Eng- 
lish ancestors ; the love of one's own which is inherent 
in most men ; and the assumed par excellence of 
every citizen, which our American individualism has 
pushed conspicuously into focus ; have all conspired 
to endow with unusual interest and dignity enquiries 
into the traits, employments, social status and general 
influence of the individual, in every walk of life. 

Moreover, Americans are beginning to feel that 
they have an ancestry to be proud of. To bear a 
name that was borne in the Mayflower is like bear- 
ing one that came in with the Conqueror. To find 
one's patronymic in Savage is next to finding it in 
Burke. And there are few families therein named 
(that have obeyed the command to multiply), that 
have not in some of their members attained an hon- 
orable distinction. 

It is gratifying to observe the large and healthy 
increase of inn rest among Americans in simply fam- 
ily history. Ii it is true that those who care for their 
ancestors will care lor their posterity, it ought to be 
hailed with gratitude as a cheering sign of the times. 

* Take, for example, Benjamin Bellows in Walpole ; Amos 
Shepard in Alstca 1 ; Francis Davis in Warner ; Christopher Hussey 
in Hampton; Ebenezer Webster in Salisbury j John Hazen in 
Haverhill ; Jacob Bailey in Newbury and Jacob Davis in Montpel- 
ier ; the TyngS in OKI Dunstable ; Benjamin Pierce in Hillsborough ; 
and scores of others which might be named. 



ORIGINAL SOURCES OF HISTORY. 11 

at once aware that a vast number of facts, desirable 
to be know n, are no \ here recorded in order, if at all. 
It ispiobable that the 'same degree of importance 
may attach to no subsequent generation, that does 
attach to the first inhabitants of a town or state. Men 
in the commonest walks of life, whose education, 
talents or ability would never have made them con- 
spicuous in older communities, become historic as 
pioneers. They have in innumerable instances, and 
in no small degree, helped to lay the foundations, 
and give si ape and character to the institutions, of 
towns which have in turn exerted much influence on 
the affairs of the state. On the other hand, many 
towns were settled by men of high intelligence, good 
education and unusual ability. This was partic- 
ularly true of Dover, Portsmouth, Exeter, Hampton, 
Charlestown, Salisbury, Hanover, Haverhill and 
many others in New Hampshire. The men who 
cleared the forests, subdued the soil, erected homes, 
founded churches, put in operation the machinery of 
local government and established permanent institu- 
tions, were men of diversity of talents, attained much 
experience in affairs, accumulated great masses of 
private papers which would reveal a tolerably fair 
record of their lives and times ; but they wrote no 
history ; seldom made a memorandum designed for 
a historical purpose. They were otherwise employed. 
It is doubtful if they understood the magnitude and 
significance of their part in the drama in which they 
were actors. Nevertheless now, not a century after 
they have gone to their rest, men eagerly piece to- 
gether the fragmentary records of their labors, and 
the story of their lives, thus constructed, reads like a 
romance. Who shall say that the zeal and endeavor 



10 OBIOIKAL SOURCES OF HISTORY. 

and what were his children's names. Surely, when 
we examine the array of volumes devoted to family 
history, which every well-furnished, historical library 
now presents, we cannot be unaware of the propor- 
tions to which this literary industry has grown ; nor 
ought we to underrate the importance which may 
possibly attach to the most ^///important facts, in the 
estimation of those engaged in it, and who ought to 
be competent to judge in such matters. 

L is probable that the peculiar circumstances of 
our condition, as a nation of recent origin, made up 
of communities some of which have been settled 
"within the memory of men still living," and many 
within the remembrance of their fathers, for the com- 
pilation of whose history so much material is sup- 
posed to be accessible, has tended to encourage a 
disregard for those Sources of historical knowledge 
we are beginning to so highly prize. It doubtless 
never occured to the first settlers in the forest that 
they were making history ; or that the facts of their 
lives, or the transactions of their public meetings 
would ever become subjects of historical inquiry. 
Their care to secure and preserve good titles to their 
estates, and to transact all business legally, made the 
early proprietors generally dilligent to keep faithful 
records of their doings ; and. although in many i 
meagre an 1 incomplete, yet they become of great 
interest to the local historian. The earl)- records of 
births, marriages and deaths, and of main event 
local importance are, however, surprising for their full- 
, when we consider the character and employ- 
ments of the first settlers of our towns generally. 

But, with all these helps invaluable, he who pur- 
sues enquiries into local or persona! history becomes 



ORIGINAL SOURCES OF HISTORY. 11 

at once aware that a vast number of facts, desirable 
to be know n, are no \ here recorded in order, if at all. 
It ispiobable that the 'same degree of importance 
may attach to no subsequent generation, that does 
attach to the first inhabitants of a town or state. Men 
in the commonest walks of life, whose education, 
talents or ability would never have made them con- 
spicuous in older communities, become historic as 
pioneers. They have in innumerable instances, and 
in no small degree, helped to lay the foundations, 
and give si ape and character to the institutions, of 
towns which have in turn exerted much influence on 
the affairs of the state. On the other hand, many 
towns were settled by men of high intelligence, good 
education and unusual ability. This was partic- 
ularly true of Dover, Portsmouth, Exeter, Hampton, 
Charlestown, Salisbury, Hanover, Haverhill and 
many others in New Hampshire. The men who 
cleared the forests, subdued the soil, erected homes, 
founded churches, put in operation the machinery of 
local government and established permanent institu- 
tions, were men of diversity of talents, attained much 
experience in affairs, accumulated great masses of 
private papers which would reveal a tolerably fair 
record of their lives and times ; but they wrote no 
history ; seldom made a memorandum designed for 
a historical purpose. They were otherwise employed. 
It is doubtful if they understood the magnitude and 
significance of their part in the drama in which they 
were actors. Nevertheless now, not a century after 
they have gone to their rest, men eagerly piece to- 
gether the fragmentary records of their labors, and 
the story of their lives, thus constructed, reads like a 
romance. Who shall say that the zeal and endeavor 



12 ORIGINAL SOURCES OF HISTORY. 

to recover and preserve such facts is a fruitless toil ? 
" Let his name, and the name of his posterity, be 
blotted forever from the memory of mankind." 

If, for instance, the general mass of facts preserved 
in Savage's Dictionary are to be considered as in any 
sense valuable, surely we cannot estimate as unim- 
portant any authority which throws a gleam of cer- 
tain light on the humblest individual in society. Not 
only does every man become the possible progenitor 
of a Franklin, a Webster or a Wilson ; but every 
man belongs to a family whose history is liable — and, 
according to present indications, likely— to be writ- 
ten. It seems to be morally certain that, at seme 
time or other, somebody will be in quest of all there 
is to be known, not only concerning the commander 
at Bunker Hill, c I arum el venerabite notnen* but also 
concerning 

11 Honest John Tompkins the hedger and ditcher." 

And the preservation of authentic information is 
the more desirable, because fable has often b .en ac- 
cepted for fact, and has come near to usurp its p'ace 
in history. The story that Henry Wilson was born 
in a gyps)' camp was believe 1, and circulated as true, 
by well informed men, and was only finally killed, 
after his decease, by the testimony oi family papers. f 
The story of David Thomson, the- first settler in New 
Hampshire, as told by Hubbard, accepted by Bel- 
knap, and passing current in history for more than 
two hundred years, is finally overthrown and the 
truth apparently established, by the diso f an 

* Quid? — Sec the controversies of the Centennial year. 

. Extracts from tl published in the Boston// 

his un imiah S. Col bath, Durham, N II.. .* tew 

President's death. 



ORIGINAL SOURCES OF HISTORY. 13 

indenture, among the private papers of Gov. John 
Winthrop, by his worthy descendant the Hon. Rob- 
ert C. Winthrop, of Boston.* Whether Richard Pot- 
ter, a man of New Hampshire though not a New 
Hampshire man, was a native of the East or West 
Indies, of Boston, London, or New Orleans, is a ques- 
tion to which no man is able to give a certain an- 
swer, and it has been gravely asserted that he was a 
son of Benjamin Franklin. And yet, Richard Potter 
lived twenty years in Massachusetts, and fifteen years 
in New Hampshire, both within the present century, 
is remembered by thousands still living, and was al- 
most as well known in his day as Daniel Webster.f 

No man has attempted to write the history of a 
town, or a family, or even of a single life, but he has 
discovered that events, of no small importance, and 
occurring within times not yet forgotten, cannot be 
established beyond a peradventure. 

To illustrate : I endeavored for some years to piece 
together the facts in the life of a man who was an 
active magistrate for twenty-seven years, a man of 
influence in the town where he lived, was marked by 
physical characteristics that distinguished him from 
all other men (which would naturally excite the cu- 
riosity and enquiries of his townsmen), and was well 
known in three counties ; and I could learn neither 
when nor where he was born, nothing of his ancestry, 
nor the whereabouts of his descendants, nor when nor 

* This Indenture, with a valuable paper thereon by Charles 
Dean, Esq., of Cambridge, is printed in Proceedings of the Mass- 
achusetts Historical Society, 1875 — 7^- 

f In 1876 I collected all the facts I could discover concerning 
" Richard Potter, the Celebrated Ventriloquist," and they were 
published in the Granite Monthly (Dover), II. 56. 



14 ORIGINAL 8OUBCE8 OF HISTORY. 

where he died ; and yet there are scores of men still 
living who knew him intimately and one distinguish- 
ed member of the New Hampshire bar now living 
pleaded causes at law before him.* 

It may safely be affirmed that tradition is not very 
faithful to preserve facts, and not trustworthy when 
she assumes to do so. We are perhaps content to 
receive as history the traditions of the ancient 
peoples, preserved in the productions of an epic age, 
and to consider them, if not facts, as being better 
than facts. We give up with tardiness and reluct- 
ance the story of Poccahontas, and the Norse origin 
of the Old Wind Mill. But we are also aware that, 
in writing history, we place little reliance on tradi- 
tions that are not strongly corroborative of each other, 
and coincident with every reasonable expectation. 

And yet, I would not exclude tradition from among 
the original sources of history. Nor am I unaware 
that man\- things are stated as true, even in written 
history, on no more absolute authority than that con- 
current circumstances indicate that they ought to b 
true. 

Having therefore given this rapid survey o( the 

* This was Jerahmeel Bowers, sometime a merchant in New 
Chester, afterwards a resident of Bristol, where he was a magistrate 
from 1815 to 1842, and for some years held a justice-court almost 
every Saturday. The records of this court, in his own hand. 
comprised in three volumes, are in the archives o\ the \ * 
Hampshire Antiquarian Society. He had the head and bod) 
man, but the lower limbs of a child, said to be not over 
in length. He taught school many years, and was commonly 
known as "Master Bowers." Judge Nesmith told me he had tried 
several cases al law before him. Certain ascertained tacts indi 

cite that he was born m Franklin. He removed from Bristol to 

Bridgewater, but it is thought he died and was buried in Hebron. 

1 le left several children. 



ORIGINAL SOURCES OF HISTORY. 15 

need and use of authentic information, and the grow- 
ing importance, in the estimation of those best 
acquainted with the subject, of all records of facts, 
and all clews which lead to their discovery, I will 
enumerate some of the most common, least prized, 
and therefore most liable to be destroyed, among the 
original sources of historical knowledge. 

And passing over tradition to which I have already 
referred, and which, although to be used with great 
caution, is by no means to be. ignored, I will name 

I. THE RELICS OF AN OBSOLETE PAST. 

Recent as is the beginning of our history, yet there 
are some things, besides Pine Tree Shillings and 
Colonial Bills of Credit, once in common use in New 
England, of which the "oldest inhabitant" has no 
recollection. I remember that the venerable State 
Historian, Dr. Bouton, searched a considerable time, 
and no man's memory was able to afford him any 
help, before he could discover the use of that 
military accoutrement the "tumpline," so well known 
to the Revolutionary soldier. * 

Of the pre-historic age of Europe we know only 
so much of the perished race as we are able to gather 
from their implements, structures and remains, found 
in the drift, in the caves and in the lakes. But from 
these scanty sources of information, and from the de- 
tached facts discovered in times and places far 
apart, has been pieced together a tolerable knowl- 
edge of their physical characteristics, employments 
and manner of life.f 

* See N. H. Provincial Papers, vii. 591. 

f In America the Stone Age of the aborigines was interrupted 
and abolished, before passing to any higher attainment, by the in- 
troduction of European methods. The natives made haste to sup- 



Id ORIGINAL SOURCES OF HISTORY. 

Now it is probably true that, of the implements 
and utensils ever in common use in New England, 
not only do some examples remain, but some knowl- 
edge of their purpose is retained by record or tradi- 
tion. Of most of them the eldest portion of our 
people, and many of middle age, have a vivid recol- 
lection. But the children are growing up — yea, many 
are already themselves parents — who have no knowl- 
edge whatever, except as they have read or heard, of 
a great number of domestic implements once deemed 

ply themselves with the more effective implements of the invaders, 
which were suited to their simple modes of life, and speedily 
abandoned their own rude constructions. In Mexico and Peru, 
the Spanish conquest arrested and destroyed a native American 
civilization remarkable for its character and achievements. If it 
ever had any "Stone Age," it had passed it long before, and had 
attained to the manufacture and use of bronze implements, ceramic 
wares, textile fabrics, and the working of the v precious metals. 
Public records were kept in a rude picture-writing, on perishable 
materials, of which some fragments were preserved, and transla- 
tions made by Spanish scholars. Hence it would be difficult to 
determine, at this distant day, how much of our knowledge of the 
native American races was derived from actual intercourse with 
them, and acquaintance with their methods by the settlers and 
conquerors of the country ; and how much from archaeological in- 
vestigation. It is probable also that, in our reconstruction of the 
methods and characteristics of the Mound Builders, much vivid- 
ness has bten lent to our conceptions, by our knowledge o\ the 
and means of the Mexicans and Peruvians, derived from 
more authentic sources, with whom they appear to have been 
COgnate, and of whom they may have been the an Never 

theless, it is certain that, had all knowledge o\ these remarkable 

American peoples, obtained by their conquerors, perished with 

them, .m understanding, both accurate and extensive, of their 

physical traits, their modes of life, their form of government, their 
attainments in the arts, their knowledge of the physical sciences, 
and their methods of public administration, could have been 
derived solely from the study of their remains. 



ORIGINAL SOURCES OF HISTORY. 17 

indispensable in a well-furnished New England house- 
hold. And this is true, not only of the appliances 
for the internal economy of the home, but of those 
used in agriculture and mechanics ; while, of those 
which remain, the form and fashion have been so 
changed, by modern inventions and improvements, 
that no true idea of the rude and durable character of 
those in use a hundred years ago can be obtained 
from them. 

So completely have the methods of our industries 
and the manners of our domestic life changed within 
this present century, that 1800 and 1876 are, as com- 
pared with other ages of the world, hundreds of years 
apart. Nor can any written description, aided by 
the engraver's art, convey to the mind that vivid and 
accurate conception, of the discarded machinery of 
the past, that can be obtained from an examination of 
the things themselves. Hence it is safe to assume 
that the collections, classification and intelligent de- 
scription of the implements and contrivances of an 
obsolete past in New England will not, probably,- at 
the end of another hundred years, be deemed a use- 
less service to history. * 

* During the; greater part of nine months from Oct. 1876, I 
was engaged in literary labor at the Museum of the Antiquarian 
Society at Contoocook. This is located in the midst of a rural 
and mostly permanent population, where ''old fashioned things" 
would be used many years after they had disappeared from cities, 
would be longest kept after they had been superceded by others, 
and hence the knowledge of their forms and uses longest retained. 
Nevertheless, I was constantly surprised by the enquiries of 
persons, twenty-five or thirty years of age and under, as to 
the names and uses of many articles, once as familiar in every 
home as spoons and platters ; and, when told, they would gener- 
ally say " they had heard the old folks tell of such things, but never 
saw one before." I had never before realized into how remote ob- 
scurity the recent past of New England had retreated. 



18 ORIGINAL SOURCES OF HISTORY. 

2 SEPULCHRAL INSCRIPTIONS. 

Our state is not yet so old that the sepulchral rec- 
ords of an early age are much decayed. But no one 
can visit the Burying Hill at Plymouth, or even the 
first cemeteries in Exeter and Haverhill ( Ms.), with- 
out foreseeing how near at hand is the time when 
many of the tablets, bearing the record of the exit, 
age and family connection of our early settlers, will 
have ceased to exhibit any legible inscription. The 
old Dummerston slate, and the old gray sandstone, 
were very perishable materials for sepulchral monu- 
ments. Even inscriptions upon our enduring granite 
will yield their sharp-cut edges to the erosion of the 
elements, and become illegible after one or two 
hundred years. It does not preserve the facts com- 
mitted to it like the syenite of Egypt. 

It is possible, of course, that all facts thus inscribed 
on sepulchral stones are preserved in local records. 
But it is morally certain they are not, and it is doubly 
certain that no such completeness is found in the 
public records of the present day. I have it on the 
authority of the late Secretary of State [Gov. Pres- 
cott] , that not above two-thirds, and probably not 
above one-half, of the deaths occurring in the state, 
arc any year reported to his office ; and I know towns 
in which I think there has not been a birth or death 
recorded for fifteen years. A file of any one of the 
leading newspapers is probably a better record of 
deaths than our state elsewhere affords. 

But, without reference to those of more modern 
date, it seems certain that any plan by which all 
sepulchral inscriptions made previous to the close of 
the first quarter of this century, at which rime by tar 

the larger part of those- who fought in the war for in- 



ORIGINAL SOURCES OF HISTORY. 19 

dependence had passed away, could be collected and 
indexed, would furnish the historian with innumer- 
able and valuable facts scarcely obtainable in any 
other way.* 

3 PRIVATE PAPERS. 

Such as bonds, contracts, indentures, inventories, 
store- and shop-books, wills, deeds and private letters. 
Of the great mass of material of this kind, only a 
small part would be of any value. Most of it will 
and ought to be destroyed. But of such as remains 
to the third and fourth generation, and particularly 
of such as belonged or related to the early settlers 
of towns, a judicious and serviceable use could be 
made; It was from a document of this kind that the 

* Since the publication of President Alden's admirable Col- 
lection of American Epitaphs in 1814, considerable attention has 
been paid to the subject of sepulchral records. It has been chiefly 
directed however to the transcription of such inscriptions as 
marked the resting-place of those who had achieved some dis- 
tinction. Hence of slight value to the historian or genealogist, 
the facts being obtainable elsewhere. A few entire collections 
from old Cemeteries in Massachusetts have been printed. The 
Worcester Society of Antiquity, makes a specialty of this kind 
of effort, and published, with biographical notes, the Inscriptions 
from the Old Cemetery in that city, before the bodies were re- 
moved in 1878. The New Hampshire Antiquarian Society has 
a^o paid particular attention to the same subject, and has col- 
lected, and copied into its MS. Historical Collections, vols. I — V, 
and carefully indexed, the entire lists of inscriptions in the towns 
of Alexandria, Ashland, Bristol, Hanover, Hill, Hopkinton, and 
Trinity Church Yard, New York City. Also partial collections 
from Exeter, Franklin and Henniker, (N. H.) ; Barre, Calais, 
Montpelier and East Montpelier (Vt.) ; Greenwich, Haverhill, 
Hubbardston and Maiden, (Ms. ) ; Windsor (Ct. ) ; and Mount 
Ida, Troy, N. Y. It has also in process of collection the entire 
lists of Canaan, Concord, Danbury, Dunbarton and Henniker.- 



20 ORIGINAL SOURCES OF HISTORY. 

historic error concerning David Thomson's con. 
nection with Mason's schemes of colonization in New 
Hampshire, above referred to, was corrected. 

4 PRIVATE PAPERS ON PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 

Of the importance of this class of documents much 
might be said. The experienced antiquary and his- 
torian knows well their value. They are not formal 
records, but supply much valuable information for 
which records would be searched in vain. They 
give the inside of affairs, of which records, if kept 
and preserved, commonly give but the outside, or 
no more than the frame-work. What a flood of 
light is thrown on the drawing-rooms and social life, 
on political intrigue and the interior of British ad- 
ministration, by the Diary of Samuel Pepys. Where 
shall we look in the journals of the Parliament, or the 
records of Westminster Hall, for that illustration of 
the profligacy of the Court, which virtuous, old John 
Evelyn gives in his private memoranda, when he 
went to pay his respects to his Sovereign on that 
Sunday night before Charles II. died ? Even the 
brilliant imagination of Macauley would have failed 
to give such graphic descriptions of the nun and 
events of that time, had these two private documents 
on public affairs been suppressed or destroyed. 

An examination of Lossing's Field Hooks will 
show how important is this class of documents as 
sources of historical knowledge ; and all history may 
be said to have received its most vivid tints chiefly 
from this kind o\ material. 

Not only are great masses of matter, written to 
town committees and selectmen by their agents and 
representatives in the stormy days of the Indian wars. 



ORIGINAL SOUR CES OF HISTORY. 21 

and of the Revolution, stowed away in town, county 
and state offices, their contents and existence un- 
known, but, after all the vandalism of the paper-mak- 
ers in the last seventeen years, there still remain val- 
uable collections in private hands. They seemed of 
no importance at the time they were produced. Their 
real value is not generally understood by the parties 
into whose hands they have fallen. But they are 
often found to contain facts nowhere else recorded, 
and have sometimes given a new phase to history. 

Similar to these are the records and transactions 
of informal gatherings, of a semi-public character. 
Assemblies of the people, self-constituted and un- 
known to the law, in which citizens discuss and de- 
liberate upon public affairs, are germane to the gen- 
ius of our republican institutions. In the crises and 
emergencies of our history, such gatherings have 
been frequent and influential. Such were the advis- 
ory bodies known as County Congresses, in the days 
of the revolution. Such were the conventions held in 
Dracut and Springfield, Mass., to devise means to 
regulate the price of commodities, and check the ra- 
pacity of merchants and speculators, in 1776* Such 
was the Hartford Convention of 18 14, whose rec- 
ords, remaining in private hands, were afterward ed- 
ited and published by the secretary.f Such were 
the War Meetings of 1 861, and the Loyalist Con- 
vention of Philadelphia in 1864. In modern times, 
the doings of such bodies, of any importance, become 
at once public through the columns of the newspa- 

* See 2 Coll. N. H. Hist. Soc. 58 ; 8 N. H. State Papers, 628. 

f History of the Hartford Convention : with a Review of the 
Policy of the United States Government which led to the War of 
1812. By Theodore Dwight, Secretary of the Convention. 8°, 
pp. 447, New York and Boston, 1833. 



22 ORIGINAL SOlliCES OF HISTORY. 

per. But it was not so anciently, and there can be 
no doubt that much matter valuable to the local his- 
torian, has been irrecoverably lost. Even of the first 
two Provincial Congresses at Exeter, no list of the 
members can be found, although these bodies cleared 
the way for the foundations of a state government. 
The records of our Hillsborough County Congress- 
es always have been and are now in private hands, 
and their discovery, after a long search, was purely 
accidental, the parties to whom they had descended 
having no knowledge of what they were, nor to what 
they related.* 

The controversy between Vermont and Connect- 
icut, as to the honor of originating the measures 
which resulted in the capture of Ticonderoga, 1775. 
is thought to have been decided by a private letter 
on public affairs. f 

5 FAMILY RECORDS. 

It is to be remembered and regretted, that this is 
a subject almost wholly neglected in our day. Every 
student of history knows it is easier to discover the 
records of families whose members have been dead 
a hundred years, than of those born within the last 
fifty. He has also found that many men, of average 
intelligence, do not know the names of their own 
grandfathers ; anil many who have (his surprising 
amount of genealogical information, know nothing 

* They were discovered stowed away in a band-box, in the attic 
of an ancient house in Amherst, by Edward D. Boybton, 
Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet, to whom they were readily given 
up, and who has since had them in charge. The publication of a 

portion of them, by the State Historian < ; l'rov. Papers. 447 ), 
lias placed so much of their contents beyond the possibility of loss. 
[dreSfl of Hon. Lucius E. Chittenden before the Yt. 11- 

torical Society, at Ticonderoga, N. V., is June. 1872, published 
in the Proceedings of that year. 



ORIGINAL SOURCES OF HISTORY. 23 

further about their ancestry, except their descent 
from one of the " three brothers who came over." 

Judged by his utter neglect to make any family 
record, private or public ; his general reluctance to 
lurnish any such information when requested — un- 
less stimulated by a suspicion that it squints toward 
unclaimed estates in England, popularly supposed to 
be lying waste and disconsolate for want of Ameri- 
can heirs to claim them — and the utter oblivion which 
possesses his intellect as to any ancestry whose ex- 
istence he cannot recollect ; would lead to the con- 
clusion that the average American cared little, either 
for his ancestors or his posterity. 

Of the records of towns, of courts of probate and 
of law, of the military and the registry of deeds, all 
of which are required to be kept by law — all most 
important sources of historical knowledge — I shall 
say nothing. But of another class, closely allied to 
town records, and sometimes as important for his- 
torical purposes, and of which there is great neglect 
and waste, I desire to say something : namely, 

6. THE RECORDS OF CHURCHES, PARISHES, PRECINCTS, 
VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS, LITERARY AND OTHER 
SOCIETIES, INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING, BE- 
NEVOLENT ORDERS, FINANCIAL AND COM- 
MERCIAL CORPORATIONS. 

Churches are important factors in determining the 
character of the local community. Their records 
often go back to the first settlement of the town, and 
contain items of information nowhere else to be 
found. These churches, by the subsequent shifting 
of population, become in many cases extinct. The 
records remain in private hands. Eventually they 



24 ORIGINAL SOURCES OF HISTORY. 

are lost, unless recovered and preserved l>y respon- 
sible persons or societies. From our institutions of 
learning have emanated potent influences, that have 
greatly modified, not only the character of the com- 
munities where they were located, but have contrib- 
uted to raise the average of culture in the state. — 
Many of these, once famous and prosperous, have 
become inoperative or extinct. Their records com- 
monly remain in the hands of the last man who acts 
as clerk of the corporation. They would throw 
gleams of light on the history of many towns and lives, 
distinguished for usefulness and power. Undoubted- 
ly many other sources of historical knowledge could 
be named, but these observations were intended to 
be suggestive rather than exhaustive. What then 
can be done, more than is being done, to preserve 
the things which remain that are ready to perish ? 

Doubtless many plans might be suggested in an- 
swer to this question. I take the liberty therefore to 
set forth certain things which appear to me reasona- 
ble and practicable, if undertaken by a sufficient 
number, of the right kind of men, and pursued with 
systematic, co-operative endeavor. 

i. I would like to see a periodical, after the style 
of Farmer and Moore l s Collections, or theA^I 
land Historical a)id Genealogical Register, established 
and supported in every State ; devoted mainly to the 
history and biography of that state, or whatever 
throws light upon it ; to include monthly lists of mar- 
riagesand deaths ; and obituaries of prominent na- 
tives and residents of the state. Such a periodical, 
if published under the auspices of a responsible 
ciety, or conducted by a judicious and trusted man. 
would deserve to be sustained. 



ORIGINAL SOURCES OF HISTORY. 25 

2. A systematic and continued endeavor, by His- 
torical and Antiquarian Societies, to collect, classify 
label, index, and render as available as possible, all 
such records and manuscripts as I have referred to 
and others of equal value. To have all the most 
important carefully copied into volumes, and mem- 
oranda of the contents of all others of sufficient im- 
portance to be preserved legibly engrossed therein ; 
and the names of places and persons alphabetically 
indexed. The same to be a part of the stated work of 
the Society. That such documents as were discover- 
ed worthy of the labor, the permanent possession of 
which could not be obtained, including papers owned 
by other states or societies (relating to the state in 
which the particular society is located), be copied in 
the same manner where permission could be obtain- 
ed, and so much as possible of this matter, floating 
about in private hands and every year running to 
waste, be saved and rendered available for the his- 
torian's use.* 

* To show that this plan is not altogether chimerical I will say, 
that it was made a part of the permanent work of the New Hamp- 
shire Antiquarian Society at the time of its organization in 1873, 
and has thus far been systemati -ally pursued. The Manuscripts 
a;e copied into Demy-Fo'io volumes, of the size commonly used in 
Registers' offices, by a Historical Committee of seven appointed 
each year, and one volume, thoroughly and completely indexed, 
commonly constitutes the work of this committee for one year. 
The IXth is now (1879) in preparation. Their contents, consist- 
ing wholly of original matter, would fill twelve volumes of 500 
pages each the size of this. After the completion of the IVth 
volume they were examined carefully for the greater part of two 
days by the State Historian, the late Rev. Nathaniel Bouton, D.D., 
who, in an address to the Annual Meeting in 1877 spoke of the ac- 
curacy and thoroughness of the work in terms mDre emphatic than 
I feel at liberty to quote, and declared this part of the Society's 



W> ORIGINA L SOURCES <>J HISTORY. 

3. To sec the Legislature of each state provide 1a 
law for the collection, classification and preservation 
of public records; either (1) in accordance with a re- 
commendation of Gov. Prescott, to the legislature 
of New Hampshire in 1877 ; * or, (2) by the erec- 
tion of a State Department of History, or of Public 
Records, providing suitable accommodations, the 
same as it now provides for the archives of the State, 
in which should be gathered either copies or originals 
of the ancient records of towns, the records of the 
proprietors of towns previous to their incorporation, 
many o, which are still in private hands, and all other 
records and documents of historical value that could 
be secured. In connection with this, the creation of 
a permanent office of State Historian, or Keeper of 
Public Records, with suitable assistance, whose duty 
it should be to look after, and endeavor to secure 
for the state, such various documents as 1 have herein- 
before named, or some of them, and to place all such 
n cords and documents, as fast as collected, in the 

labor, if pursued in the manner in which it had been commenced, 
li an invaluable service to history." For full account of the man 
ner of conducting this labor, sec Granite Monthly, I. 154. 

* I recommend the passage of an act making the register of deeds 
in each K>unty the custodian of the papers not required for the im- 
mediate use of the town. With slight expense, under the direc 
tion of the count) commissioners, alcove- could Deconstructed in 
the fee proof vaults in the register's office, equal to the number of 
towns in the county. The town clerks, under the direction of the 
selectmen, should be required to deposit such papers in these vaults. 

properly folded, filed, and labelled. The advantage to the public 
from such a change would be incalculable. All ancient mv\ ira 
portanl papers would then be .is sacredh preserved is the title 

deeds to real estate in the same towns. — (,',<;■ /'> SCOtt to tki 

Islature < Hampshire 



ORIGINAL SOURCES OF HISTORY. 27 

in the best possible condition for consultation, and 
furnish copies when desired for a fixed fee. That 
means should be provided by law for making this 
the depository of all municipal records (either by 
copies or originals) up to some given date, say 1825, 
with provision for their augmentation to within fifty 
years, every quarter of a century. I cannot help be- 
lieving that such an arrangement would be found 
more convenient, and more acceptable to those who 
would have most frequent occasion to use them, 
either for purposes of history or law, than any which 
divided and dispersed them in smaller collections ; 
and much more so than their present scattered, dis- 
ordered and dilapidated condition. This latter is 
only an outline of something that seems desirable. 
Of course I know the general constitution of the 
legislative body, and hence how Utopian any such 
scheme would seem to be. But it is safe to assume 
in the light of experience, that whatever shall be 
thought desirable by the " wise men " of any given 
state, for the better keeping and more facile use of 
the local and general public records, the people of 
that state can be educated to demand and the legis- 
lature to grant. It is true I" have a zeal " on this 
subject ; but I trust it is somewhat "according to 
knowledge." Long experience in searching the 
fields of local history has taught me how important 
sometimes are papers regarded as worthless by their 
possessors ; how easily dates and circumstances need- 
ed to complete the history of a life or place are 
neglected and lost ; in what a confused, deplorable 
and perishing condition are the proprietary and early 
records of towns, and particularly the loose and un- 
recorded town papers. The various Historical and 



28 ORIGINAL SOUBCBS OF HISTOli Y. 

Antiquarian Societies have rendered invaluable ser- 
vice, of the kinds and in the directions indicated 
above, however little their work is appreciated by the 
masses. Nevertheless, there are some lines of re- 
search and some fields of enterprise not yet very 
thoroughly explored, much less are they occupied 
and cultivated, which promise rich returns and abund- 
ant harvests to the industrious antiquary ; and it has 
appeared to me that so favorable a time will never re- 
cur for the successful gathering-up of the fragments 
which remain, for securing and preserving many 
relics and records of an obsolete past — a phase of 
New England life which can have no repetition in the 
centuries to come — as does occur to us of this gen- 
eration. And if to the endeavors of those gentlemen 
who, appreciating the value and importance of such 
sources of historical knowledge, have acquired facili- 
ty and skill in their arrangement and use, the State 
would supply the sanction of law and the sinews of 
war for a thorough and systematic campaign, and for 
the future care of the spoils, it would perform an act 
for the promotion of the public honor and the public 
good, for which after generations, benefitted by her 
provivlent foresight, would rise up and call her bit 

Note. — Since the foregoing pages were printed, I have been 
gratified to learn that the New Hampshire Historical Society hail 
appointed a committee of eminent gentlemen to devise and 
recommend means for the better preservation of municipal rec- 
ords and papers. 



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